


#ThanksgivingWithEXO

by crownedSerpent09



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Family, Fluff, Gen, Holidays, Thanksgiving Dinner, im emo, ot12 feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-01 20:59:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8637862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crownedSerpent09/pseuds/crownedSerpent09
Summary: It was barely 4 p.m. when they set the kitchen on fire for the first time.





	

It was barely 4 p.m. when they set the kitchen on fire for the first time.

Joonmyun stomped down the hallway as fast as he could, eyes locked on the open doorway of EXO’s dorm kitchen. It was like a preview to hell, dark but for the red flashes of the oven fire and wrought with the screams of Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Minseok. Jongin was crying as he called for Joonmyun to hurry up. Sehun was cursing and hiding under the dinner table, and Kyungsoo was yelling at them all. Joonmyun paused at the doorway, summoning up all the mystical leader powers he had built up throughout these four years, and stepped over the threshold.

It was not as worse as he thought it would be. The foreboding red and yellow light of the fire had died down as someone, presumably Minseok by the empty pot in his hands, had thrown water to put out the fire. Dark flakes drifted down the air in front of Joonmyun’s eyes like black snowflakes, lit by the white glow of the dining room ahead of him. A head of blond hair poked out from beneath the table in the dining room, and Joonmyun only spared Sehun a glance before taking in the scene in the kitchen.

Jongin had stopped crying and was now hovering over Joonmyun’s right shoulder, his periodic sniffs puncturing the silence. The ground in front of the oven was black with soot, and the flakes of ash had settled onto the counters and the clothes of the kitchen’s occupants. Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Kyungsoo stood arrayed in front of Joonmyun with wide, deer-caught-in-the-headlights expressions, and Minseok was still at his vantage point in front of the stove, leftover water dripping from his pot.

Joonmyun merely took a deep, deep breath, rubbed the spot in between his eyebrows, and snatched up a towel to toss to Chanyeol.

“Chanyeol, Baekhyun, clean up this mess. Kyungsoo, salvage our dinner. Minseok and Jongin, go to the store and get whatever Kyungsoo needs. Sehun, continue setting the table. I’m going to call Jongdae and Yixing and see if they have reached the airport. If all three of their flights are on time, we have approximately three hours before they get here. Move, move, move!” The remaining ash flakes in the air were stirred into a frenzy by the flurry of movement that followed Joonmyun’s speech. Using the towel to protect his hands, Chanyeol opened the oven and retrieved the burnt remains of their once-glorious turkey. Baekhyun flitted past Joonmyun to get mops and cleaning supplies from the hall closet. Kyungsoo quickly took stock of their food situation and rattled off a grocery list to Minseok and Jongin’s apt ears. Sehun crawled out from under the table with his bundle of napkins and cutlery. By the time Joonmyun had backed out of the kitchen, he could let out a sigh of relief.

If EXO had any merits, it would be their ability to work like a well-oiled machine.

The living room was quiet and spotless, a condition the other members had made sure of in the early afternoon. Though Joonmyun had been banished from the cleaning portion of the day, he was proud as he observed his members working together to present the best version of their dorms in anticipation of the guests that were coming that night. Joonmyun had never felt so comfortable and as at home as he did when he saw, with his own two eyes, the ease and the familiarity that the members held in regards to one another. He really did love the holiday season.

The floor-to-ceiling length windows were spotless as Joonmyun stood in front of them, gazing out at the city below, which was slowly beginning to be lighted by the individual bulbs of every building and street. The white decor of the living room was draped in the shadows of the darkening wintry sky. The dial tone in his ear didn’t seem ominous as it normally would have been, and Joonmyun felt the most calm and composure he had ever felt whilst dealing with this group of people. It seemed that time does heal.

“Hello?” Yixing’s voice was crackly over the phone and almost drowned out by the barrage of background noise.

“Yixing-ah, I take it that you’re at the airport already?” Joonmyun rubbed a forefinger over his Adam’s apple. He noted that a group of dark forms were milling around below, at the foot of the SM building. Probably a group of trainees eager to celebrate out in the streets of Seoul.

“Yes, we’re at the arrivals area. Jongdae is looking for a manager that will take us to the private waiting room.”

“Okay, take care, Yixing-ah. And be careful not to be seen.”

“Don’t worry, we’re both wearing jackets big enough to cover half our face. There’s no way Jongdae and I will be noticed.”

“Even then, be careful. Make sure manager hyung is near you two at all times.”

“Manager hyung stayed in the car.”

“ _What?_ ”

“It’s easier for Jongdae and I to pass as two normal university-aged men on our own than with manager hyung. He acts too much like --- well, our manager.”

Joonmyun let out a controlled breath and promised himself, for the thousandth time that day, that everything will be fine. “Alright, Xing-ah. Hurry up and get to that waiting room now.”

“Okay, bye Joonmyun. I’ll text you once they get here.”

Joonmyun hummed his approval and pressed the “End Call” button. There was barely enough light to make out the darkened screen of the phone in his hand anymore. Joonmyun stared back at his pale reflection in the window glass. He decided to stay until the sun had fully set.

 

By 6:50 p.m., the dorm was full of the merry sounds of Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Sehun’s bright commentary on the movie they were watching in the living room, Kyungsoo and Minseok’s chatter among the clanking of pots and pans and thud of knives against cutting boards in the kitchen, and Jongin’s Christmas playlist that featured all the American classics as well as songs from winter albums of their favorite idols. Jongin himself had been locked up in his room doing _something_ for the better part of an hour. It was when Joonmyun had decided to join the excited pile on the couch that the door to Jongin’s room flew open and he was calling for Joonmyun’s help.

“Red or blue?” was the question Joonmyun was met with as soon as he was whisked into the room by their second-youngest member and Jongin had stepped back from where he had reached over Joonmyun to close the door.

“Is this a philosophical question…?” Joonmyun was slightly speechless.

“ _No_ , hyung,” came Jongin’s emphatic reply. He held up two flannel shirts that he pulled from nowhere and inquired for Joonmyun’s opinion again. “Which do I look better in?”

“You’ll look great either way, Jongin-ah,” was Joonmyun’s honest answer. “But, it depends on what side of yourself you want to be presenting. Should you be cool, effortless, and princely?” Joonmyun pointed at the blue flannel. “Or do you want to be passionate, exciting, and sexy?” He indicated the red.

Jongin looked at Joonmyun skeptically for all of two seconds before he was pressing the red flannel closer to himself. “Thanks for the advice, hyung!” And Joonmyun was promptly shut out of the room.

Joonmyun’s smile was stopped halfway into its path across his face when the doorknob turned. There was no way they got back so quick. He quickly withdrew his phone, clicking open his messages in panic.

 _All here :)_ , Yixing had sent at 5:43 p.m.

What had he been doing at 5:43? Oh, that’s right, helping Sehun comb out his quiff in the bathroom.

Joonmyun bit back his curse and drew himself up to his full height, attempting to channel calm and composure. The door opened to Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s excited crows.

They all filed in, one by one, with Jongdae leading the way. Yifan’s hair was curled in at the edges because of the wind. Zitao was wearing three more rings on his fingers since the last time Joonmyun had seen him, and Lu Han’s cheeks were still pink from the cold. They turned a bright red when Minseok stepped into his line of sight, illuminated by the yellow light of the kitchen.

Lu Han didn’t wait to greet anyone else before he was taking huge steps toward the kitchen doorway and enveloping Minseok into a hug. They didn’t part the entire time that Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Sehun were exchanging loud reunions with the others, nor did they when Joonmyun finally unfroze his limbs and made his way across the living room to envelope his own former closest friend into a hug.

“You smell like the potpourri Jongin always puts in his room,” Yifan muttered into the top of Joonmyun’s head.

“He only ever puts it there around this time, now,” Joonmyun replied as they drew away. He only took one unobstructed breath before he was captured by Zitao’s embrace.

“Hyung,” the black-haired man said.

“Did you get taller?” Joonmyun slipped into a motherly tone, earning uproarious laughs from the others.

“What are you all doing, standing there like idiots?” Kyungsoo’s voice cut across the room. Joonmyun noticed that Lu Han and Minseok had disappeared, probably drawn into the kitchen. “The food’s ready,” Kyungsoo said, breaking out into one of his rare bright smiles.

Yixing and Jongdae emerged from the hall with one of Jongdae’s arms slung across Jongin’s shoulders. Yixing and Yifan quickly fell into a light-hearted, teasing conversation, and Joonmyun was guided through the kitchen into the dining room by Zitao’s death grip around his waist, where Lu Han and Minseok already sat waiting. For some reason, he couldn’t find it in himself to care when Chanyeol used his shoulders as a springboard as he bounded on behind them, or when Kyungsoo dragged Baekhyun by the ear to enlist the help of the last two to serve the food, to Sehun’s loud complaints. All Joonmyun felt was the warmness within him that had nothing to do with the temperature, the crowded room, or even the oven fire. It had everything to do with the feelings of safety and of home he found when all of them were together.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Me: I have a lot of feelings about ot12 rn.  
> Me at me: Then make it worse.


End file.
